URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/001680.asp

Friday, September 26, 2003

Elouise Cobell was on the road when she found out on December 21, 1999, that a federal judge ordered the Department of Interior to account for billions of dollars of Indian funds. She was so struck by the landmark ruling that she pulled over and cried.

Yesterday's decisions from the tireless jurist who has been handling the case since 1996, should make the rest of us shed some tears too. Four years after that December 21, 1999 ruling, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered the Department of Interior to account for billions of dollars of Indian funds.

If it sounds like nothing has changed, you're right. Only this time around, Lamberth has been more specific. In response to the shameless arguments of Interior's finest lawyers and their Department of Justice cohorts, the court has laid out, in plain language, all the duties of a trustee. Any of these could have been identified by a first-year law student but it took more than $700 million, two trips to an appeals court, two White House administrations and upwards of $5 million in private attorneys' fees for the government to figure it out.

Call it Indian Trust for Dummies. For just last week, Aurene Martin, the number 2 official at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, testified on an unrelated federal recognition bill and told Congress that the nature and scope of the government's fiduciary duties to American Indians were still up in the air even after the Bush administration lost that very same point in a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

But anyone who's paid attention in the past few years knows that our trustee-ignorant has wasted Indian Country's time, resources and money on a meaningless paper chase that will put the cost of reform at $1 billion-plus by 2005. OST, TAAMS, BITAM, OHTA, CTMP, EDS . . . whatever today's alphabet soup gives us, it's all been a wash for tribal leaders and Individual Indian Money (IIM) beneficiaries who are such burdens these days that they aren't even invited to meetings any more by a bureaucracy that hollowly whines about its undeserved reputation.

And now we're told that we should just accept it because all these great services we've been getting over the years have been free! Unfair leases? Those were free. Late checks? A gift. Stall tactics and delays? Free too. Backlogged probates? That costs nothing.

We'd like to withdraw our money but it's only $60, according to Interior's greatest defense.

So what next? Simple: Interior will appeal and blame everyone else; Interior will lobby Congress and blame the court; and Interior will tell Indians it's our fault. At least we'll get the straight answer.

The sad fact is that no matter who is in charge, DOI folks will always do the same thing. They're congratulating themselves right now for retaining jurisdiction over a trust they treat as a toy. No doubt someone is up for a financial award for all this hard work. It's tough being a trustee.

Relevant Links:
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust

Related Stories:
Decisions affirm Cobell rights on trust fund (9/26)
Lamberth issues rulings in Cobell case (9/25)
Swimmer criticized for remarks on trust accounting (9/25)
Bush official balks at large settlement for Cobell (7/10)
Closing arguments set in Cobell trust fund trial (7/8)
Dicks pins anti-Cobell language on Taylor (7/7)
Editorial: Trust fund settlement bill 'disgraceful' (7/7)
Swimmer to appear on Native America Calling (7/7)
Swimmer finally off the stand in Cobell trial (7/3)
Swimmer testimony in Cobell trial wrapping up (7/2)
Swimmer recalls 'fuzzy' Reagan years (7/1)
Lamberth questions Norton's trust limits (7/1)
Pombo targets trust fund settlement program (6/30)
Swimmer testifies on trust fund accounting (6/27)
Swimmer challenged on Bush reform plans (6/27)
Swimmer expected to take stand in Cobell trial (6/25)
Griles gets Cobell wish list from House (6/26)
Taxpayers fund private attorneys to tune of $3M (6/25)
Norton offered settlement funds for IIM trust (6/20)
Swimmer testimony to come at end of Cobell trial (06/05)
Cason to take stand in Indian trust fund trial (6/4)
Indian trust standards debated (6/3)
Suit aims to halt reorganization (6/3)
Norton starts defense in trust fund trial (6/2)
Tribes stress unity on trust reform solutions (6/2)
Cobell welcomes a settlement to trust case (5/29)
Lamberth criticizes interference with trust fund case (05/22)
Tribes oppose OST expansion into Indian County (5/22)
Swimmer: Don't fear changes at Interior (5/22)
On trust, Swimmer turns to private sector (5/14)
Trial in Cobell trust fund case kicks off (05/02)
Bush reform plans debated in trust fund trial (05/02)
Cobell v. Norton Recap: Day 1 of Trial 1.5 (05/02)
Court tackles trust accounting and reform plans (05/01)

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